This is the last week of the December half 2013 earnings reporting season with 60 major companies due to report.
Retailers, resources, industrials and especially mining services companies will be among those groups reporting.
The current season has been dominated by the higher than expected dividend announcements from a wide range of companies.
According to data prepared by the AMP’s chief economist Dr Shane Oliver, 70% of companies reporting (both interim and full year figures) have increased their dividends from a year ago (compared to an average of around 62% in the last two years).
Companies from retailing, resources, finance and general industrial have lifted dividends.
Companies due to report include Qantas, Worley Parsons, Harvey Norman and Woolworths.
Higher dividends could come from Harvey Norman and Woolies, while Qantas is expected to reveal more job cuts and a huge loss, and possibly some sort of support from the Federal Government.
Today full year results are due from Boart Longyear, Beach Energy and Caltex Australia, while BlueScope Steel is scheduled to produce its half-year results.
Tomorrow, half-year earnings are expected from Atlas Iron, AWE, IOOF Holdings and SFG Australia. QBE Insurance Group and Oil Search are due to reveal full-year earnings.
Wednesday sees half-year results from AGL Energy, BC Iron, Flight Centre, Infigen Energy, Lend Lease Group, Whitehaven Coal, WorleyParsons and Wotif.com Holdings. Full-year results are due from Sydney Airport and Westfield Group and Westfield Retail Trust.
On Thursday, Countplus, Nine Entertainment Group, Perpetual and Qantas Airways are due to report half-year earnings. Macquarie Atlas Roads Group will unveil its full-year results.
And on Friday, half-year results are due from Calibre Group, Harvey Norman, Virgin Australia Holdings and Woolworths. And full-year results are expected from Aurora Oil and Gas, while James Hardie Industries will post third-quarter results.
One company due to report last week, but didn’t appear was Speciality fashion Group. It bought the Rivers group in December for $5 million. The non-appearance might be nothing, but the results will be one to look for.
Looking at last week, earnings results were a bit more mixed.
But the AMP’s Dr Shane Oliver says that with around 70% of companies having reported, overall results remain pretty good and confirm the profit cycle has now turned up with large companies, notably the resources and banks playing a bigger role than normal in driving growth.
"So far 57% of companies have exceeded expectations (compared to a norm of 43%); 67% of companies have seen their profits rise from a year ago (compared to a norm of 66%); and 54% of companies have seen their share price outperform the day they released results," he wrote at the weekend.
"Key themes are a massive turnaround for the resources stocks (notably Rio and BHP) leaving the sector on track for circa 40% earnings growth this financial year, banks doing very well (with good results from CBA, ANZ and NAB), help coming through from the lower $A, ongoing cost control, signs of improvement from some cyclicals (like Boral, JB Hi Fi, Fairfax and Seek) and strong growth in dividends.
"The surge in dividends – which are up about 15% from a year ago – is a good sign that companies are confident about the outlook.
"The bottom line is that Australian earnings look to be on track for growth of around 15% this financial year, with a 40% surge in resources’ profits, a 10% rise in financials’ profits and a 6% rise in profits for the rest of the market," according to Dr Oliver.
